Crimson Moonlight
by ClockwiseDoom
Summary: After the fight against Rido, Zero and Yuuki reconcile with each other and discover their feelings. However, Kaname's determined to get Yuuki for himself, but will Zero simply allow him to have Yuuki? ZeroXYuuki. Full summary inside. ABANDONED.


**Crimson Moonlight**

**Rating:** M for Mature for violence, some gore, language and sexual scenes in later chapters, so rating might go up.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Vampire Knight. Hino Matsuri does. :)

**Summary: **After the fight against Rido, Zero and Yuuki reconcile with eachother and discover their feelings. However, not everything is peaceful after the Pureblood vampire's death. Kaname's determined to get Yuuki for himself, and he's made it clear that Zero will never have her. But will Zero simply allow him to have Yuuki? ZeroXYuuki.

**Author's Note: **After listening to _Skillet_ for hours, songs like **"The Last Night"**, **"Whispers In The Dark"**, **"Comatose"**, **"The Older I Get"**, **"Your's To Hold"**, **"Rebirthing" **and **"Falling Inside The Black" **inspired this. Thanks so much, my _Skillet_ muse! :D So, each chapter will be named after a Skillet song, but this is **NOT** a song-fic. This story is told in Yuuki's point of view, and has MAJOR SPOILERS for chapters 21-42 of the manga. I honestly hope the manga goes something like this, but then, this is a fanfic and not a factual part of the manga. Just say it starts where 42 left off, but the rest is my story. XD I hope there's no spelling mistakes or anything **sweatdrop**... and.. hope you enjoy!

**1. REBIRTHING**

The world was stained in blood. Etched with red from years before, painted with the lingering remains of both human and vampire life on this cold and dark night. And only more blood would soon stain the earth in red. Red was the only color around us, the only senses to our brains that told us we were still alive, although we wouldn't be much longer. Soon we would accompany those who had drenched the world in this red color.

That was the undeniable truth.

Rido and his men -- his vampires -- stood in front of us, the bloodlust maniac closer to us than the Level E servants, who flanked behind him. I stood on trembling legs, eyes wide, realizing that I would be responsible for the deaths of my friends and classmates, once Rido finished Zero and me. The sneer on Rido's mouth told me that, and I knew that he was right. What was the point in fighting him, a Pureblood stronger than any Pureblood to exist?

Zero, not meeting my eyes, simply stood in front of me, his vines drawn for battle at any moment. I knew he was waiting for the second Rido would attempt to pounce again. Like him, I was waiting for that. And although I knew something had changed between us -- I'd known it since the very second I had been reawakened -- I knew that he still, without question, was ready to protect me at all costs, and possibly, die for me here. But although he'd told me many times in the past that he'd give his life for me, I'd proven to him time and time again I'd give my life to save him as well. And at this moment in time, with the aura of hate errupting from his core, I still vowed to fulfill that promise. Even if I died with him hating me in the end. It would all be worth it, for the pain he'd had to suffer through out his human life, and still suffered now, in his vampire existence.

I gripped my scypher in my hand tightly, weilding it as I quickly walked forward to Zero's side. I saw his posture change out of the corner of my eye, his eyes locked on me, but I ignored him.

"Yuuki, what the hell are you doing? Get back!" He snarled. Even now... with that glare as cold as ice, emanating hatred, it felt like the old times when he would protect me. I fought against the tears in my eyes and swallowed hard.

"Zero, I told you before; I'm on your side, after all. Even if you hate me... I will not abandon you." I met his gaze finally, a single tear escaping my eyes despite my protest. "Ever."

Zero's eyes narrowed coldly, and he averted his face from me, but he raised no further protests and I managed a small smile. It was a good sign then, that even though we had things we would have to work out.. he raised no more objections to me helping him. I continued.

"This man has destroyed my family as well as your's, Zero. Right now, even though we have our differences, we are the same. We are exactly the same at this point in time, and all I ever wanted was to be the same as you, so then I could be as strong and willed as you are." I knew the pep talk wouldn't get me anywhere with Zero at this point in time, however, but I hoped my words would at least let him know that I still cared and respected him.

I readied my weapon and glared at the man up ahead. Again, I saw Zero's frame change as he, too, turned towards Rido.

Rido, unexpectedly, began laughing. It was such a creepy sound it made the hair on my neck stand up. I noticed Zero tense at his bark, and we both knew that this was not going to be good. The lunatic shook his head and smirked at me.

"You idiotic girl. Do you really intend to fight me? Really, I shall have fun making a pile of crushed bones out of the boy, but you... I think I'll have a little _too_ much fun.."

My fists clenched, and I yelled, "You'll not be destroying either one of us, Rido! Zero and I will destroy you!"

He laughed again, louder and shriller this time, and Zero and I winced at exactly the same time.

"You children are so stupid. I honestly thought you -" he looked at Zero, his tone mocking, " - could put up a little bit more fight than shooting off vines. You're supposed to be the most powerful hunter, _and_ vampire, raised by Kaname? You really are pathetic. I really don't know what my fiancee saw in you. All you were then and all you are now and what you'll forever be is a small little boy who made as sad as an excuse for a vampire as he did a human brat."

Zero's eyes widened in hatred, his teeth grit together, fangs barred. His expression was one of the deepest loathing. "Your _fiancee_, as you call her, was a little touched in the head. But don't underestimate me, Rido Kuran. You were the one responsible for the slaughter of my family, and now.. for the death of my little brother. I will not let you kill anyone else."

I gasped audibly, and turned to Zero, stunned. "Ichiru's dead?!"

He lowered his head and spoke in a voice of pain. "Yes."

"Ahh.."

Rido made his presence known again. "So.. your pathetic twin reconciled with you after all, did he, now? How touching. I'm assuming he gave you the power you should have had in your mother's womb. Well, no matter. Even with that extra power, you'll be unable to fight me. Luckily for you, Zero Kiryuu, I just might just show a little bit of mercy for you and kill you quickly, so you can rejoin your pathetic parents and brother. You hate this life as a vampire, and wish to be dead anyway, correct?" He practically shot the question at Zero.

Zero smirked. "It would do me no good to die extracting revenge, Rido. Why die with a piece of scumbag garbage like you? Although I may not be sure my reason for living exactly, whether it's just to kill you or die here, I can tell you why I've lived up until now and why I don't intend to die here. The reason is standing right beside me."

The damned tears came again as I realized what Zero was saying. Even now, if he hated me.. I was still the reason he'd lived for so long.

He continued, staring Rido down, who was giving him a look as if he were crazy. "Yuuki was my reason for living for the last four years, Rido. She made me believe I could continue on, because she had that kind of essence about her. Although the Yuuki I knew.." He growled audibly, his fists clenched together, his nails digging into his flesh until he drew blood. "is dead now... I still have to do this thing for her, this final act to protect the girl I used to know."

I didn't know what hurt the most; the knowledge in knowing that Zero thought I was completely different from who I was and as if my true self had disappeared off the face of the earth or the fact that I knew I was dead in his heart. The time he had tried to kiss me came to my mind, and I knew now that he'd hadn't been simply not quite awake or not realizing what he was doing; he loved me, he had loved the human part of me, and felt like now that girl who was Yuuki Cross - not Yuuki Kuran -- was gone. In shock, I realized the truth; I was no longer Yuuki Cross. I was Yuuki Kuran, the sister of Kuran Kaname and the neice of this madman who stood across from me, and most importantly, I was a Pureblood. Now that I was no longer human, his fire of love for me died like the feeble human within my soul. I was corrupted, an existence with power in the tainted line of the Kuran blood, the strongest blood, and this heart could never be Zero's. From here on out, Zero could never love me again. And we could never be close like friends as we were before. We would eternally be known as enemies now. And I would have to accept that truth.

I smiled bitterly as I addressed Zero, my face sheilded by my hair. "You're right, Zero. You're much too good to love someone like me. I am a part of a world that could never co-exist with your's. The Pureblood's.. we're not great.. we're pathetic and damned and much more vile than any Level E that could ever exist."

Rido scoffed, and Zero said nothing, looking to the ground. The tears dripped from my slender nose and down my cheeks onto the ground, splattering the cement with fictional tears. Tears that were not real. Tears of something not human. Tears of a vampire, a meaningless way to show emotion when I, a non-human, should not show human emotion at all. I was a monster beyond all monsters. My soul was wrecked and damaged, and a creature like me should never be allowed to show such a human and proud emotion as crying.

My Pureblood uncle began chuckling again. "How cute. So, 'princess', your emotion runs deeper than the depths of friendship with him? Well, this is certainly a twist. A Pureblood should never become friends with a vampire who was formally human, much less anything else. I taught Shizuka that by killing that twit of a man she fell in love with and now I'm going to teach the same thing to you when I kill the hunter over there."

I looked up in shock, just as Rido began to run towards us. Before I could react, Zero knocked me thunderously to the ground, and I landed on my back as I looked up with horrified eyes as Zero stood in front of me protectively, vines crashing violently at Rido as he lazily swipped at my friend. As one of the clawed hands reached out towards me, Zero pushed himself closer to me, and my eyes widened as I saw the gash of blood appear on Zero's right arm.

"Zero!" I screamed.

"Yuuki, just stay down!" He ordered. "Don't move, Yuuki!"

He managed to dodge Rido, and knocked the man slightly off balance with a whip of his vines. But I noticed, fear rushing through me like venom, that Rido was perfectly able to swipe through them, and even at Zero's speed with his ability to produce the vines, I knew that the time would come when Rido would be too quick for Zero to defend himself. Right now, I could see, Rido was simply playing with him and enjoying every second of it.

I slowly crawled towards Zero and began to get to my feet but out of the corner of his eye he saw me and pushed me back down and produced a barrier of vines with just a second left before Rido's clawed hand would've gone through his chest. "I told you to stay there!" Zero snapped.

"No!" I protested. "I won't let him kill you!"

"Damn it, Yuuki, stay put before _I_ kill _you_! If you keep trying to move, he _will_ kill me!"

So I gave up, knowing he was right. I couldn't afford to distract Zero. When an opening came, I'd get my chance. For right now, all I could do was pray Zero could keep up his defence until Rido ran out of steam. But the Pureblood appeared as though he'd gotten tired of playing and was now going at a complete onslaught against Zero, and the silver-haired boy was panting heavily as he tried to keep up his defensive sheild. Sweat dripped down his silky hair and onto his face and neck. Rido laughed at him.

"Already tired out, eh, boy? Why don't you just give up and let me kill you and take your little girlfriend to be my lover?" He sneerd.

"You sick fuck," Zero growled. Rido's brow furrowed and he slashed at Zero again, and this time Zero was unable to produce his barrier in time. The claw grazed his abdomen, but it was still enough to draw quite a bit of blood. Zero groaned, the vines falling away, and he stumbled on his feet as he slowly fell to his knees.

"Why don't you watch your tounge, you little ignorant imbecile?" Rido growled.

"ZERO!" I lunged forward, my heart racing and latched myself onto Zero, my arms wrapped securely around his neck.

"Get off, Yuuki!" He snapped, but I shook my head violently and only pressed myself closer to him.

"No! Zero! Please don't die!" I begged, shaking my head as the tears rolled fast and thick down my face. Zero gazed at me, eyes filled with not hate finally, but.. some kind of emotion? Was it fear? Anger? Gentleness? Shock? Perhaps all four. Still, my arms remained wrapped around him, my eyes shut tightly as I held my body out to protect him.

Rido was directly over us, but he was watching our exchange with a look of complete rage. "You protect this brat and yet you call yourself a Pureblood? You... Kuran Yuuki, are the most disgraceful Kuran in our ancestory. Hell, even Kaname has more class than you. But don't you worry," He smirked, and leaned down to purr into my ear, "I'll kill you and the boy together. However, I must say.. it'll be interesting to see what Kaname thinks about all of this. After all, weren't you born to become his wife?"

I tensed visibly at his condeming tone. "Yes, I was, but... I've always decided my own destiny, and even in this other life, I still have control over my own life."

"I don't think so," Rido snarled. His claw-like hand reached down and seized me by a lock of hair, lifting me off of my feet before I could open my eyes. His face was contorted in rage. "You will not be Kaname's wife. You will be mine, Kuran Yuuki. I will never let you go. You will be mine as Juuri should have been mine. Oh, how I regret destroying that beautiful body, the body that should have bore my children and not Haruka's! But you certainly make up for it, my little Pureblood princess."

He turned me so that I was in front of him, and I fought against the pain of my hair practically being ripped out of my skull, as he addressed his servants. "Dispose of anyone here, especially the boy and Kaname Kuran. Do what you will with them. I'm taking my little Yuuki with me."

He began to cackle, and before I could begin to scream in protest or call Zero's name, or anyone's name for that matter, Rido's high laughter was cut off and replaced by a shriek of pain. My eyes opened in shock. The scypher, my artemis, that I had dropped when Rido had grabbed me, was now completely sticking through his chest. I could feel the warm liquid of blood fall onto my hair and drip onto my shoulders. A few streams dribbled down my face but I could care less as I watched Zero, who was less than a centimeter away from me, his head lowered by my knees, shaking in rage and pain, the blood from his own form begin to ooze again from his abdomen, twist the handle that was my blade further into Rido. Rido gasped in shock at just the moment that Zero lifted his head to glare into Rido's eyes with hate and pain I wanted to never see in Zero's beatiful lavender-grey eyes again. Tears were stuck on his cheeks as he whispered, "Dont.. you.. dare... take... ANYTHING MORE AWAY FROM ME!"

Repeating the words he had once said to Shizuka Hio as she attempted to turn me into a vampire, I realized that Zero still saw me as something important in his life. I was still something to him, and throughout all of the betrayal and hatred he felt for me, his love for me was stronger than anything he could ever feel for me. For the fifth time today, I felt tears running down my face again, but not in fear or pain or anger, but in happiness in knowing that I had never truly been dead in Zero's heart.

Rido's hold on me loosened, and he dropped me to the ground just as he crumpled to his knees. His face was white with anger and pain. "You.. little... bastard.." he seethed at Zero, but Zero did not seem to care about his insults as he whispered, "burn in hell, you son of a bitch." and shoved the scypher out through his back. I choked on vomit at the sight of all the blood, a usually tempting essence but in this case quite disgusting, and Rido Kuran fell backwards as death finally claimed him.

Zero groaned as the blood from his wound soaked his white shirt, and I wordlessly crawled towards him, removing my jacket and wrapped it around him. He did not protest, nor did he lift his head, but I could hear him breathing exhaustedly. I sighed quietly and made to move away from him, knowing that right now we could not talk quite yet, but Zero pulled me forward and quickly swung me into his arms. The hug was gentle and painless, but it was strong and protective, and it seemed as if it was filled with every emotion Zero'd had to endure of all of the years, all of the words he could never say.

"Yuuki.." He whispred huskily, his voice cracking slightly with emotion.

"It's okay, Zero," I said softly, wrapping my own arms securely around him. "Everything's.. over.. now."

"Not quite." He pulled me away and met my questioning eyes. "We still have those idiots to take care of." He inclined his head towards the Level E's, who were now going nuts with blood lust. We stumbled to our feet, Zero holding his arm out protectively in front of me again, preparing to fight again.

Before I could protest this, a voice errupted behind us, making us turn. "Kiryuu, haven't you had too much of a beating today? We'll take 'em, I brought back up!" Aido was running towards us, with the members of the Night Class in pursuit. My mouth fell open in shock.

"What the hell, Aido? What are you guys doing here?"

Aido scowled at me. "You may be Kaname's sister, but honestly, you're such a dimwit. We came to fight of course!"

I scowled back and ignored Zero's smirk as the rest of the Night Class joined us. Ruka avoided making eye contact with me and I knew she was still a sad case of sour grapes with me being Kaname's lover and not her, but Kain and Ichijou nodded at me and were weilding artemis's much like mine. I looked around, noticing Shiki and Rima, two of whom who were gazing hatredly at Rido's fallen form.

"Hey, can we go spit on that freak's dead body?" Rima asked Zero, who appeared somewhat annoyed at being spoken to, but shrugged and nodded.

Rima smirked and she and Shiki ran forward and began kicking Rido's body. Blinking in surprise, I caught Zero's eye and he shook his head, a smile daring to play on his lips, as if he were restraining laughter. I had to smile slightly too, but as I looked around, I saw that Kaname hadn't come with the Night Class and that worried me slightly.

The Level E's, having gained some composure, noticed thier master getting kicked by Shiki and Rima and lunged forward at them before they could react. I gasped and met Zero's wide eyes again. "Zero!"

He nodded at me and with lightning speed, tossed Shiki and Rima out of harm's way and landed on his feet three feet from the Level E's. Kain, Ruka, Aido, and Ichijo met eachother's eyes and nodded, all throwing themselves at the Level E's at the same time. Smacking my head with my hand at the recklessness, I ran forward to join them, pulling my beloved scypher out of Rido's bloodied corpse and swinging it as I prepared to dispose of some Level E's. Zero walked to my side, vines whipped and ready. I blinked at him.

"Zero, you're still injured --"

"It doesn't matter. Though that freak is dead, this war isn't over until his people are dead, too." He told me. "And I didn't fight this fight just to have you killed by some lowlife Level E."

I nodded my head, rather than protest, and we all prepared, as the moon came overhead, glowing a crimson red, for the second fight of the night.

--

Next chapter will be up soon... hopefully.. hope you enjoyed, and read and review, please! I feed off reviews like human blood! Mwhahahaha... nevermind. XD


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